test_server_ctrl

MODULE

MODULE SUMMARY

DESCRIPTION

The test_server_ctrl module provides a low level
interface to the Test Server. This interface is normally
not used directly by the tester, but through a framework built
on top of test_server_ctrl.

Common Test is such a framework, well suited for automated
black box testing of target systems of any kind (not necessarily
implemented in Erlang). Common Test is also a very useful tool for
white box testing Erlang programs and OTP applications.
Please see the Common Test User's Guide and reference manual for
more information.

If you want to write your own framework, some more information
can be found in the chapter "Writing your own test server
framework" in the Test Server User's Guide. Details about the
interface provided by test_server_ctrl follows below.

EXPORTS

This function starts the test server. If the parameter file
is given, it indicates that the target is remote. In that case
the target node is started and a socket connection is
established between the controller and the target node.

The parameter file is a text file containing key-value
tuples. Each tuple must be followed by a dot-newline
sequence. The following key-value tuples are allowed:

{type,PlatformType}

This is an atom indicating the target platform type,
currently supported: PlatformType = vxworks
Mandatory

{target,TargetHost}

This is the name of the target host, can be atom or
string.
Mandatory

{slavetargets,SlaveTargets}

This is a list of available hosts where slave nodes
can be started. The hostnames are given as atoms or strings.
Optional, default SlaveTargets = []

{longnames,Bool}

This indicates if longnames shall be used, i.e. if the
-name option should be used for the target node
instead of -sname
Optional, default Bool = false

{master, {MasterHost, MasterCookie}}

If target is remote and the target node is started as
a slave node, this option indicates which master and
cookie to use. The given master
will also be used as master for slave nodes started with
test_server:start_node/3. It is expected that the
erl_boot_server is started on the master node before
the test_server_ctrl:start/1 function is called.
Optional, if not given the test server controller node
is used as master and the erl_boot_server is
automatically started.

Suite match pattern. Directories will be scanned for Pattern_SUITE.erl files.

Puts a collection of suites matching (*_SUITE) in given
directories into the job queue. Name is an arbitrary
name for the job, it can be any erlang term. If Pattern
is given, only modules matching Pattern* will be added.

This function will add the content of the given test
specification file to the job queue. The job will be given the
name of the test specification file, e.g. if the file is
called test.spec, the job will be called test.

See the reference manual for the test server application
for details about the test specification file.

These functions add test jobs just like the add_dir, add_module,
add_case and add_cases functions above, but carry an additional
argument, Skip. Skip is a list of items that should be skipped
in the current test run. Test job items that occur in the Skip
list will be logged as SKIPPED with the associated Comment.

This function adds various test jobs to the test_server_ctrl
job queue. These jobs can be of different type (all or specific suites
in one directory, all or specific cases in one suite, etc). It is also
possible to get particular items skipped by passing them along in the
Skip list (see the add_*_with_skip functions above).

The reason for stopping the test case, which will be printed in the log.

When calling this function, the currently executing test case will be aborted.
It is the user's responsibility to know for sure which test case is currently
executing. The function is therefore only safe to call from a function which
has been called (or synchronously invoked) by the test case.

Determines where I/O from test suites/test server will
go. All text output from test suites and the test server is
tagged with a priority value which ranges from 0 to 100, 100
being the most detailed. (see the section about log files in
the user's guide). Output from the test cases (using
io:format/2) has a detail level of 50. Depending on the
levels set by this function, this I/O may be sent to the
console, the major log file (for the whole test suite) or to
the minor logfile (separate for each test case).

All output with detail level:

Less than or equal to Console is displayed on
the screen (default 1)

Less than or equal to Major is logged in the
major log file (default 19)

Greater than or equal to Minor is logged in the
minor log files (default 10)

This function should be called before a test is started.
The parameter specifies if test_server should attempt
to automatically scale the timetrap value in order to compensate
for delays caused by e.g. the cover tool.

Name of file listing modules to exclude from or include in cover compilation. The filename must include full path to the file.

Analyse = details | overview

This function informs the test_server controller that next
test shall run with code coverage analysis. All timetraps will
automatically be multiplied by 10 when cover i run.

Application and CoverFile indicates what to
cover compile. If Application is given, the default is
that all modules in the ebin directory of the
application will be cover compiled. The ebin directory
is found by adding ebin to
code:lib_dir(Application).

A CoverFile can have the following entries:

{exclude, all | ExcludeModuleList}.
{include, IncludeModuleList}.

Note that each line must end with a full
stop. ExcludeModuleList and IncludeModuleList
are lists of atoms, where each atom is a module name.

If both an Application and a CoverFile is
given, all modules in the application are cover compiled,
except for the modules listed in ExcludeModuleList. The
modules in IncludeModuleList are also cover compiled.

If a CoverFile is given, but no Application,
only the modules in IncludeModuleList are cover
compiled.

Analyse indicates the detail level of the cover
analysis. If Analyse = details, each cover compiled
module will be analysed with
cover:analyse_to_file/1. If Analyse = overview
an overview of all cover compiled modules is created, listing
the number of covered and not covered lines for each module.

If the test following this call starts any slave or peer
nodes with test_server:start_node/3, the same cover
compiled code will be loaded on all nodes. If the loading
fails, e.g. if the node runs an old version of OTP, the node
will simply not be a part of the coverage analysis. Note that
slave or peer nodes must be stopped with
test_server:stop_node/1 for the node to be part of the
coverage analysis, else the test server will not be able to
fetch coverage data from the node.

When the test is finished, the coverage analysis is
automatically completed, logs are created and the cover
compiled modules are unloaded. If another test is to be run
with coverage analysis, test_server_ctrl:cover/2/3 must
be called again.

Analyse cover data collected from all tests. The modules
analysed are the ones listed in the cross cover file
cross.cover in the current directory of the test
server.

The modules listed in the cross.cover file are
modules that are heavily used by other applications than the
one they belong to. This function should be run after all
tests are completed, and the result will be stored in a file
called cross_cover.html in the run.<timestamp>
directory of the application the modules belong to.

The cross.cover file contains elements like this:

{App,Modules}.

where App can be an application name or the atom
all. The application (or all applications) will cover
compile the listed Modules.

This function starts call trace on target and on slave or
peer nodes that are started or will be started by the test
suites.

Timetraps are not extended automatically when tracing is
used. Use multiply_timetraps/1 if necessary.

Note that the trace support in the test server is in a very
early stage of the implementation, and thus not yet as
powerful as one might wish for.

The trace information file specified by the
TraceInfoFile argument is a text file containing one or
more of the following elements:

{SetTP,Module,Pattern}.

{SetTP,Module,Function,Pattern}.

{SetTP,Module,Function,Arity,Pattern}.

ClearTP.

{ClearTP,Module}.

{ClearTP,Module,Function}.

{ClearTP,Module,Function,Arity}.

SetTP = tp | tpl

This is maps to the corresponding functions in the
ttb module in the observer
application. tp means set trace pattern on global
function calls. tpl means set trace pattern on local
and global function calls.

ClearTP = ctp | ctpl | ctpg

This is maps to the corresponding functions in the
ttb module in the observer
application. ctp means clear trace pattern (i.e. turn
off) on global and local function calls. ctpl means
clear trace pattern on local function calls only and ctpg
means clear trace pattern on global function calls only.

Module = atom()

The module to trace

Function = atom()

The name of the function to trace

Arity = integer()

The arity of the function to trace

Pattern = [] | match_spec()

The trace pattern to set for the module or
function. For a description of the match_spec() syntax,
please turn to the User's guide for the runtime system
(erts). The chapter "Match Specification in Erlang" explains
the general match specification language.

The trace result will be logged in a (binary) file called
NodeName-test_server in the current directory of the
test server controller node. The log must be formatted using
ttb:format/1/2.

EXPORTS

This function is supposed to be invoked from the
commandline. It starts the test server, interprets the
argument supplied from the commandline, runs the tests
specified and when all tests are done, stops the test server
and returns to the Erlang prompt.

The CommandLine argument is a list of command line
flags, typically ['KEY1', Value1, 'KEY2', Value2, ...].
The valid command line flags are listed below.

Names the test suite to something else than the
default name. This does not apply to SPEC which keeps
its names.

PARAMETERS parameterfile

Specifies the parameter file to use when starting
remote target

COVER app cover_file analyse

Indicates that the test should be run with cover
analysis. app, cover_file and analyse
corresponds to the parameters to
test_server_ctrl:cover/3. If no cover file is used,
the atom none should be given.

TRACE traceinfofile

Specifies a trace information file. When this option
is given, call tracing is started on the target node and all
slave or peer nodes that are started. The trace information
file specifies which modules and functions to trace. See the
function trc/1 above for more information about the
syntax of this file.

A test server framework can be defined by setting the
environment variable TEST_SERVER_FRAMEWORK to a module
name. This module will then be framework callback module, and it
must export the following function:

EXPORTS

This function is called before a test case is started. The
purpose is to retrieve a list of subcases. The default
behaviour of this function should be to call
Mod:Func(suite) and return the result from this call.

This function is called before a test case or configuration
function starts. It is called on the process executing the function
Mod:Func. Typical use of this function can be to alter
the input parameters to the test case function (Args) or
to set properties for the executing process.

By returning {skip,Reason}, Func gets skipped.
Func also gets skipped if {auto_skip,Reason} is returned,
but then gets an auto skipped status (rather than user skipped).

This function is called when a test case, or a configuration function,
is finished. It is normally called on the process where the function
Mod:Func has been executing, but if not, the pid of the test
case process is passed with the Status argument.

Typical use of the end_tc/3 function can be to clean up
after init_tc/3.

If Func is a test case, it is possible to analyse the value of
Result to verify that init_per_testcase/2 and
end_per_testcase/2 executed successfully.

It is possible with end_tc/3 to fail an otherwise successful
test case, by returning {fail,ReasonToFail}. The test case Func
will be logged as failed with the provided term as reason.

This function is called in order to keep the framework up-to-date with
the progress of the test. This is useful e.g. if the
framework implements a GUI where the progress information is
constantly updated. The following can be reported:

This function is called as the result of function Mod:Func failing
with Reason at Location. The function is intended mainly to aid
specific logging or error handling in the framework application. Note
that for Location to have relevant values (i.e. other than unknown),
the line macro or test_server_line parse transform must
be used. For details, please see the section about test suite line numbers
in the test_server reference manual page.

The test server checks the number of processes and nodes
before and after the test is executed. This function is a
question to the framework if the test server should warn when
the number of processes or nodes has changed during the test
execution. If true is returned, a warning will be written
in the test case minor log file.